Ooh, where’s DBT when we need him?
Add that to my Photoshop request list, please. 
Thanks for doing my job for me GR.
this is my question too!!! i think sith lady sounds dumb and not very effective at striking fear into hearts…muahahha…what do you think about sith dame (pronounced DAHM) that sounds scary and is in keeping with the traditional titles…he put the masculine form out there so we definately need the feminine ~ for balance!! hey! i am actually the one to bring balance to the (darkside) of the force!! hee hee 
was it venture bros that put forth the argument that smurfs were like bees cause a single female was being serviced by many males??
for some reason i always picture myself in that black bikini with dual wield sai blade looking sabers…(i actually have my sith costume on my myspace page!!) i designed the sai saber blades many years ago…before my friend bought me my very own lightsaber kit a few months ago as a thank you for helping him and his wife paint their new house and i got to build my lightsaber and chose RED for the blade color it makes noise and everything!! 
Don’t hesitate to share pictures!
So what did Luke’s experience in the cave mean? That he has proclivities towards falling to the Dark Side? That there is a Skywalker in side of Vader?
What did Yoda mean by “The Cave, the Cave. Remember your failure at the Cave.”?
According to the Star Wars storybook that I read as a child, it meant that if he faced Vader he would be killed. It just meant he wasn’t ready. When I read the novel later in life, it said basically the same thing. At the time, Luke was not ready to face a Sith lord. It had nothing to do with Vader being his father and stuff. As a cinematic device it works, though. Cuz later, you’re like Ooooohhh!
I’ve tried to explain to people about the book and all. They just look at me funny.
It makes think of those detective genre stories, but is a definite improvement from “Sith lady.” Nothing wrong with the word “Lady” per say, but it gives more the mental image of a regal and benign person. And for a woman sith we want something a bit more bad ass [sorry Barb].
Not really, it is just more of me being not quit right in the head and having watched the smurfs as a kid. Did you hear that strange urban myth that the creator had sold his soul to the devil for the show to be successful, and that the show was some kind of metaphor for that deal? Yeah, I thought it was strange too.
To put your minds at ease the official term, at least in one of the biggest cases, is Dark Lady of the Sith.
Read this Sith Woman’s bio for the most famous of the group…
I’ll buy that answer…
Since I didn’t want to trust my memory I busted out my copy of the novel. Here is the excerpt:
He (Luke) wondered if he were really fighting himself, or if he had fallen prey to the temptations of the dark side of the Force. He might himself become a figure as evil as Darth Vader. And he wondered if there might be some even darker meaning behind the unsettling vision.
That last part sorta leaves it open to interpretation about the revelations of Vader as his father.
And now for the text from the storybook:
Then the helmet cracked and fell away. Luke gasped in terror at what he saw. It was an image of his own head! As the vision faded away, Luke slowly began to realize what it meant. He was not yet ready to face Darth Vader.
So there you have it. I’m quite impressed that my memory wasn’t so bad.
Well, the novel and storybook answers seem awfully simplistic and reductionistic to me. I realize they were written for kids, but surely we can do better now that we’re all grown-up.
The cave sequence (although John Williams’ original title for the cue in the sore was “The Magic Tree,” which I like even better <g>) is probably the most thematically rich scene in any of the six films. (A sure sign that Lucas’ hand was nowhere near it.) I think Phil is absolutely on target (“stay on target!” <g>) with his analysis. Luke is not ready to face Darth Vader because he has not accepted the Vader inside himself, his own shadow side. Frakkintalos may be right, it may have “nothing” to do with Vader being Luke’s father (although it certainly is a major piece of evidence in that direction that I missed entirely as a kid), but it has a lot to do with the hero being able to recognize and to some extent the antithesis of everything he stands for within himself. Sort of like the Batman having to confront the uncomfortable truth that he is not all that far apart from the Joker in The Dark Knight.
Of course, the scene is intentionally ambiguous, and it is wonderful. It can be appreciated on many, many levels.
You are correct to put quotes around the “nothing” to do with Vader being his father. In the scope of the story, it has ramifications. But at that moment, Luke doesn’t know Vader is his father. That’s what I meant.
In the past when I have watched this movie with friends and family, during that scene someone says, “See he knows Vader is his father.” Or somehting like that. It drives me bonkers.
As MikeP pointed out, there is much in that scene. Luke is realizing he’s not ready. If he rushes it, he could become Vader. He must control this new power or it could control him. Several aspects, all omnious and opaque. It’s meant to. He’s having a vision in a spooky tree, for Force sake!!
I like the fighting himself metaphor which would certainly lead to the Dark Side (you know jealousy, hatred, suffering… yada yada yada…)
Definitely a failure at the cave…
So in the end, did Luke ‘fail’ in his encounter with Vader on Besbin? He certainly didn’t defeat him (which wasn’t his destiny anyway) and he didn’t go to the Dark Side. So was it a draw? What was the crucial moment that kept Luke from going to the DS? Clearly, it was when he chose to jump and not join Vader. But what between the episode at the Cave and his choice to jump lead him to the correct decision?
This is conjecture but I believe right before Luke rescued Han from Jabba the Hutt he spend time in Ben’s old crib. He made a new lightsaber there and probably worked out a few issues. It would make sense that he talked to Ben during that time but as we see in RotJ, he confronts Ben at that time about Vader being his father.
I don’t think Luke was ever really tempted by the Dark side during that first encounter except for feeling and facing a ton of Fear. Vader was toying with him. Vader wanted him for his own apprentice. Luke just barely got out of there.
So Vader didn’t give him the hard sell because he wanted Luke to turn to the DS on his (Vader’s) terms and avoid risking Luke becoming the Emperor’s apprentice?
Wear him down approach. Teach him to enjoy using his power instead of control it, like the Jedi way. Taunt and abuse, until Luke loses it. Not a great plan, but Vader tried.
The big question around town after Episode V was: Is Darth Vader Luke’s father?
Many thot he was just lying, trying to confuse Luke, etc.
In light of watching all of these back to back, knowing what happened in the prequels, I’ve got to go with Sean on the “Yoda frakked up” train. I would also add that Obi could have made some better choices too…In a way, the way they treat Luke, not telling him the truly important things about who and what he is, reminds me a lot of how they treated Anakin. Yoda’s the one who should have gone into that frakkin’ cave…
I had a slightly different interpretation of the cave scene. To me, it seemed to represent the fact that there was so much turmoil inside Luke - and the fact that there was so much unresolved, more than he was even aware of - that any fight or mission he would get into would inevitably be against himself and said issues. He wouldn’t be ready, or clear in intent or purpose, until he had. That may have been a good time for Yoda to speak up and say something like, well, maybe one reason you’re all twisted inside is…
I’m not going to be too deep here. After watching SW 1-3 and seeing how bad ass Yoda is, I had a hard time watching him play the simpleton during his first moments with Luke. Of course I understand why Yoda was acting this way, but I still didn’t like seeing it. Perhaps because I was still feeling the sting of his failure with the Emperor.
Anyway, we all know that Yoda was 100% CGI in the prequels and that he was a muppet/puppet for Empire. Having watched several of the “making of” shows, I also know there were tons of issues with the puppet. When I watched the movie this time, I saw only character and honestly didn’t feel there was any difference in how Yoda looked, other than older, which was appropriate. I never thought about this before but I’m discovering, as many of us have in this rewatch, new aspects of the films I never noticed before because I am watching them in chronological order. Anyway, I love that the old school effects still stand the test of time, even against CGI. I think having an actual puppet or person does make a difference. Probably why I enjoyed Hellboy so much.
My favorite moment in ESB is Solo- “I know.” Great story of how Ford came up with that line himself. It’s so perfect for the character and, in my opinion, softens Leia’ s tough exterior a bit.